“Since your life is determined by your assumptions, you are forced to recognize the fact that you are either a slave to your assumptions or their master.

Becoming the master of your assumptions is the key to undreamed of freedom and happiness.

You can attain this mastery by deliberate conscious control of your imagination. Form a mental image, a picture of the state desired, of the person you want to be. Concentrate your attention upon the feeling that you already are that person.

First visualize the person in your consciousness. Then feel yourself to be in that state as though it actually formed your surrounding world.

The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well sustained attention, firmly and repeatedly focused on the object to be accomplished.

Every state is already there as mere possibilities as long as we think of them, but as overpoweringly real when we think from them.

.. You become according to your resigned will and your resigned will is your concept of yourself and all that you consent to and accept as true.

.. Every phase of your life is made by the exercise of your imagination.

Determined imagination alone is the means of your progress, of the fulfilling of your dreams.

It is the beginning and end of all creating.

The great secret is a controlled imagination and a well-sustained attention firmly and repeatedly focused on the feeling of the wish fulfilled until it fills the mind and crowds all other ideas out of consciousness.

.. The Truth that sets you free is that you can experience in imagination what you desire to experience in reality, and by maintaining this experience in imagination, your desire will become an actuality.

.. You must stop spending your thoughts, time, and money. Everything in life must be an investment.

To spend is to waste without a return. To invest is to lay out for a purpose from which a profit is expected.

It is about the transformation of the moment. It is only what is done now that counts. Whenever we assume the feeling of being what we want to be, we are investing.” (p.19)

“Your imagination is you, yourself, and the world as your imaginations sees it is the real world.” (p. 25)

“As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.

..Be still and know that you are that which you desire to be, and you will never have to search for it.” (p.38)

“The whole of creation exists in you, and it is your destiny to become increasingly aware of its infinite wonders and to experience ever greater and grander portions of it.” (p.42)

Children of the cosmos, and our only real job is to let go of our seriousness and find the delight in every exquisite jewel that life places before us.” (p. 21)

“Our deep seated fear that life is based on chance leads to fear, and shallow breath. It manifests through our need to maintain control over our lives. It is only when we begin to touch the core of the primal fear within us that our system begins to let go of this deep seated tensing of our being.

“The more we allow and feel the fear, the more we let go into the embrace of the cosmos, and the more we realize how deeply we are held and protected by it.” (p. 17)

“The path of innovation broadly means to improve something by introducing a new element or elements.

The gift of innovation requires adults to allow themselves to be shaped by their environment and be as open-hearted and open-minded as a child. All preconceived notions, dogmas, or beliefs, must be discarded when they no longer serve the developing synthesis.

Innovation also requires a deep sense of inner trust.” (p.19)

“Just as the cell’s true brain is in its membrane rather than its nucleus, so our true brain in in our emotional system. Like the cellular membrane, the solar plexus system determines what frequencies are allowed in and out of the body.

“This is the sacred secret: Life is designed to keep on innovating and the old human with its single-celled island mentality has had its day.”

“The certainty of order within the universe is a feeling that can only be captured by a more advanced system of awareness.

Above all, it is equated with the human heart and the feeling of love and unity that links between all creatures.

“Your true home is not located within your body, not is there somewhere in the universe a single center through which everything is orchestrated. The center you are looking for is the feeling of love itself, which is the omnicentric manifestation of your eternal state of innocence.”

It controls more than just our lives; it holds sway over the entire cosmos- all the stars and planets, as well as our earthly environment..

But the most devastating change in human life – death- always catches us by surprise.”

“In this society, almost everyone is afraid of death- but to appreciate life fully, we have to face reality. Impermanence and death are integral parts of being alive; this realization can vibrate within us and wake us up.. we see that although our lives are very dear to us, they do not last forever.

To be born a human being is a very rare privilege, and it is important that we appreciate our lives and take advantage of this opportunity.

With an understanding of impermanence, many aspects of life that one ordinarily finds fascinating, no longer seem so appealing. We become able to see through them and find that they are not actually that satisfying.

We can then more easily let go of our attachments and fears, as well as our own little shell of protection. Thinking about the impermanence of our life wakes us up; we realize that at this very moment we are actually alive”

“Still there is struggle, for we find ourselves wanting things that we know will cause us pain or frustration. Our habit patterns are very hard to break, and even when we try, obstacles always seem to appear- our desires and attachments push us to repeat the same destructive patterns.

Our emotional needs habituate us not only to material things, but very subtly to our self-identity. We do not want to lose our sense of control over ourselves, our environment, or even over other people. But until we let go of our attachments to personality and self-image, it is difficult even to see these life patterns, let alone to change them.”

“Instead of wasting our energy and human potential in useless thoughts and actions, we begin to act constructively, for the basis of the spiritual path is the development in ourselves of what is truly balanced, natural, and meaningful.

We can begin by accepting each moment and enjoying it, but most of us don’t know how. Enjoying life may be extremely important to us, yet too often when we experience pleasure, our minds project the satisfaction into the future, so our lives become filled with empty dreams that never materialize.

It is difficult to truly accomplish anything in the present when our minds are always oriented toward some future goal.

This does not mean that we should avoid making intelligent plans for the future; it only means that we must live more fully in the present.

When we endeavor to develop ourselves in the present, we will grow toward our future goals until they are accomplished. The present naturally leads us to the future, and the future changes according to how we live in the present.

When we are confident in whatever we do, and all our actions are meaningful, then not only our daily lives, but our future lives as well, will be balanced and harmonious.

When we open ourselves to our present experiences, we can realize that right now we can enjoy our lives… right now we have the opportunity. We do not need to be too concerned with the future- the present will lead us there no matter what we do.” p.8

“Men are anxious to improve their circumstances, but are unwilling to improve themselves; they therefore remain bound.

The man who shrinks from self-crucifixion can never accomplish the object upon which his heart is set. This is as true of earthly as of heavenly things.

Even the man whose sole object is to acquire wealth must be prepared to make great personal sacrifices before he can accomplish his object.”

“…Man is the cause (though usually unconsciously) of circumstances, and that, while aiming at a good end, he is continually frustrating its accomplishment by encouraging thought and desires which cannot possibly harmonize with that end.”

“Circumstances are so complicated, thought it so deeply rooted, and the conditions of happiness vary so vastly with individuals, that a man’s entire soul condition (although it may be known to himself) cannot be judged by another.

A man may be in honest in certain directions, yet suffer privations; as a man may be dishonest in certain directions, yet acquire wealth.

But the conclusion usually formed that one man fails because of his particular dishonesty, and another prospers because of his particular honesty, is the result of superficial judgment, which assumes that the dishonest man is almost totally corrupt, and the honest man almost entirely virtuous.

In light of a deeper knowledge and wider experience, such judgment is completely erroneous. The dishonest man may have some admirable traits the honest man does not possess, and the honest man obnoxious vices absent in the dishonest.

The honest man reaps the good results of his honest thoughts and acts; he also brings upon himself the sufferings which his vices produce. The dishonest man likewise harvests his own suffering and happiness.

It is pleasing to human vanity to believe that we suffer because of our virtue.

But not until a man has uprooted every sickly, bitter, and impure thought from his mind, and washed every single stain from his soul, can he be in a position to know and declare that his sufferings are the result of his good [or] his bad qualities.

Yet long before he has reached that supreme perfection he will have found, working in his mind and life, the great law of justice in which good cannot produce evil, nor evil good.

Possessed of this knowledge, he then will know, looking back upon his past ignorance and blindness, that his life is, and always was, justly ordered, and that all his past experiences, good and bad, were the equitable working of his evolving, yet unevolved self.” p.28-29